Im somewhat confused. Im in the market to build a new computer. My current desktop is a 2.4 GHz Celeron Northwood w/ 8KBytes of L1 and 128 KB of L2 cache (yeah, I know). Its a Dell (again, I know). Im thinking that this time around, Im building my own computer w/ an AMD (the Conroe will be better, but not for my price range), and Im doing some research so I dont buy a nice-sounding 2.4 GHz and it turns out to be as poor a performer as this is.
As far as price goes, Im looking around $150 +/- $25. The processor I have been interested in is the Athlon 64 3800+ Orleans, which is $145 at Newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103631
Now, I have heard about the upcoming price-drops on July 24th (or around then), and I took a glance at the dual cores for the hell of it. A 50% price cut might put the X2 3800+, 4000+, and 4200+ in my range (current prices are $297, $357, $358 respectively).
So my question is, would it be better to stay with the single core 3800+ and save some cash, or jump to a dual core? I dont play many games, I run Linux and Windows, and I do multitask a lot, so it would seem that the dual core is an obvious choice. But some performance benchmarks I have seen show that single cores outperform double cores at some tasks. Maybe I would be better to save some money with a single core. I am strapped for cash as it is, and I only want to upgrade if it would be an obvious and absolute advantage. The jump to double core needs to be worth it.
Also, looking at Newegg, which is better to buy, the 4000+ or the 4200+, if they are the same price? Something strange going on there...
In addition, I want to make sure that the 3800+ Orleans single core will work with PC2 6400 ram. I have seen comments saying that it will only work with pc2 5400 and below, that a X2 processor is required to use PC 6400. Is this true?
Thanks for the help!
Justin
As far as price goes, Im looking around $150 +/- $25. The processor I have been interested in is the Athlon 64 3800+ Orleans, which is $145 at Newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103631
Now, I have heard about the upcoming price-drops on July 24th (or around then), and I took a glance at the dual cores for the hell of it. A 50% price cut might put the X2 3800+, 4000+, and 4200+ in my range (current prices are $297, $357, $358 respectively).
So my question is, would it be better to stay with the single core 3800+ and save some cash, or jump to a dual core? I dont play many games, I run Linux and Windows, and I do multitask a lot, so it would seem that the dual core is an obvious choice. But some performance benchmarks I have seen show that single cores outperform double cores at some tasks. Maybe I would be better to save some money with a single core. I am strapped for cash as it is, and I only want to upgrade if it would be an obvious and absolute advantage. The jump to double core needs to be worth it.
Also, looking at Newegg, which is better to buy, the 4000+ or the 4200+, if they are the same price? Something strange going on there...
In addition, I want to make sure that the 3800+ Orleans single core will work with PC2 6400 ram. I have seen comments saying that it will only work with pc2 5400 and below, that a X2 processor is required to use PC 6400. Is this true?
Thanks for the help!
Justin